Bengals
The Bengals finalized a one-year, $30 million deal with Trey Hendrickson, meaning Cincinnati was able to keep core players like Hendrickson, WR Ja’Marr Chase, WR Tee Higgins, and TE Mike Gesicki together. Bengals HC Zac Taylor thinks their front office deserves praise for working things out with each of them.
“Balancing a lot of talented players is not easy, you know, especially when it’s time for them to get paid,” Taylor said. “And I don’t think our organization gets enough credit for how they balance all this, how they handle it. It’s not simple. No one in that situation can handle it very simply … I’m sure it’s been fun talking fodder for people over the last nine months, but we got it done, and proud of our organization for getting it done.”
Hendrickson said he wouldn’t have accepted any long-term offers he received and is grateful for the compromise they made on a short-term raise.
“I can’t write my own contracts, we’d all love to do that,” Hendrickson said. “There wasn’t one I saw long-term I would have considered. This compromise comes with a great amount of respect from me towards them.”
Hendrickson will become a free agent in 2026, making the franchise tag an option, which is projected to cost $34.8 million next offseason. When asked about his future, Hendrickson said he’s only concerned about their upcoming season.
“With the salaries going up, the tag also will be going up,” Hendrickson said. “It’s not something I’m concerned about. I have to focus on what the 2025 Bengals mean to me. I want to be part of something special here.”
Browns
Browns DE Joe Tryon-Shoyinka said that he’s gunning to be the starter opposite of DE Myles Garrett as he transitions from a 3-4 OLB to a 4-3 DE in Cleveland.
“It would definitely mean a lot,” Tryon-Shoyinka said, via Browns Zone. “Those are the things that show how much trust that they have in you, how much you’ve shown throughout training camp, OTAs, those months that you’ve got to learn the coaches and your teammates. So ultimately you want to be that guy, but we’re all going to be contributing. I see a huge role in everyone on the defensive line and everyone’s going to need to be a part of it to have success.”
Browns HC Kevin Stefanski envisions Tryon-Shoyinka being a great addition to the team even if he is playing a different position.
“You see the skill set. You see big, long, speed,” Stefanski said. “He can really run, he can really bend and he’s got great length. So those are great traits to have when you’re talking about coming out of a three-point stance or a two-point stance. But football’s football, whether you’re in a 3-4 scheme or a four-down scheme, he’s a good football player.”
Ravens
The Ravens signed S Kyle Hamilton to a four-year, $100 million extension to make him the league’s highest-paid safety of all time. Hamilton reflected on coming to Baltimore as a first-round pick in 2022.
“It’s crazy. It’s a dream come true,” Hamilton said, via NFL.com. “First, I just want to thank a lot of people. I want to thank God, first and foremost. [There are] so many situations and things that have happened in my life that have gotten me to this position. I think back to draft night, and some people have said some things about where I was drafted, this and that, and where I could be drafted. And at the time, I think I was the least mad out of anybody. I knew that I came to the right place, and I think that’s how God works sometimes. You have to see the bigger picture and [that He] has bigger plans for us.”
Hamilton is glad to get the deal done ahead of the regular season, saying he thinks it would’ve become a “distraction” going forward.
“I wanted to get it done,” Hamilton said. “I feel like it would’ve been a distraction. It’s just human nature to kind of think about those things even though I try not to. But no, I think the Ravens – and credit to them and everybody upstairs – they did a great job just engaging in conversation.”
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